If you were to ask me what my favorite romantic trope is, my answer would be the "I'll find you and love you in every universe" trope. It's actually very niche—or at least, finding a well-written one is. Now, imagine my absolute shock when Arcane just… did THAT.
Of course, I had to write notes upon notes about it, rewatch it many times, and try to untangle it all. So here we are, with an essay that is part speculation (time loops always require some good old mental gymnastics) and part analysis.
"In all timelines, in all possibilities, only you can show me this." ~ JayVik and The Making and Unmaking of Worlds.
As Maggie Stiefvater would say, depending on where you began the story, it was about Jayce Talis. Jayce, the child dying in a snowstorm, saved by magic and given a little rune by his savior; the brilliant inventor, looking for a way to harness magic through science because he has seen how beautiful magic is and how many it could save; the man about to commit suicide when his dream is shattered, saved by a stranger who would become his everything and who returned his dream to him.
But depending on where you began the story, it was also about Viktor. Viktor, the powerful mage who brought an end to the world's suffering; the lonely mage who realized that, at the end of it all, there’s nothing but fields of dreamless solitude—because to end all suffering is to end humanity; the grieving mage, who built a monument out of the man he loved and lost in pursuit of perfection, and who decided to try again: a different equation, a different result. Viktor, who went back to the child that had been the man he loved, and saved him from the snowstorm over and over again. A different rune, a different world.
Pick a side of the story—it doesn't matter which one—they're both the beginning and the ending of what I'll call the Original World.
I’ve come to believe that these are the Original Jayce and Viktor, from the Original Timeline. One that went down differently from what we’ve seen, yet is fundamentally the same, as there are constants in these worlds—things that keep happening one way or another, such as Jayce using Hextech to save Viktor (whether from an explosion or his illness, it doesn’t really matter). I think, however, that in this timeline, Jayce and Viktor went down the hive-mind route together, as Viktor was never pushed to become the Machine Herald. This means Jayce never rejected him in the first place—because why would he? He wouldn’t know where their efforts to build a world without suffering would lead. But that they did it together or alone doesn’t change the fact that, in the end, humanity is lost—and so is Jayce.
So Viktor goes back, over and over again, giving baby Jayce a new rune each time to try to fix the ending, creating the loop. A different rune dropped is the flapping of a butterfly’s wings that creates a new world—the small change that sparks a new timeline.
I believe every timeline was created and destroyed by Viktor in his attempt to find the right equation: one that would result in a perfect world with no suffering, but also a world that still has Jayce in it.
At the end of the Original Timeline, the lesson Viktor learns is that a world without Jayce isn’t a world worth living in. At the end of all timelines, when every equation is solved, the ultimate lesson Viktor learns is this: there’s no prize to perfection. There is no Jayce at the end of a perfect world because humanity is imperfect. And that is the beauty of it. That is the human condition: you can’t have joy, life, or love without some intertwined pain.
This interpretation of the story is, I believe, proven by the existence of the AU timeline we’ve seen—the one where Hextech wasn’t invented. Even that timeline begins in the same way: baby Jayce receives a rune, and he grows up trying to bring magic to the world, but Vi dying in his lab prevents Hextech from being developed. Either Jayce dies in the explosion, or he doesn’t try to defend himself in court, and therefore Viktor never finds out about his research. Without that information, Viktor isn’t there to stop him from committing suicide, and Viktor himself will eventually die of illness.
This is a world where things are actually better—not perfect, but with less suffering than in every other iteration (this, too, deserves a more in-depth analysis that maybe I’ll write someday). This is a world where the cycle is broken, and Jayce and Viktor do not bring about the end of the world. So why isn’t this the final timeline? Why doesn’t Viktor stop looking for a perfect timeline after he realizes that a world without him and Jayce is actually a better world?
I’ll borrow Olivie Blake’s words to answer that (her Atlas Series actually has a lot in common with Arcane in terms of themes and philosophy, if you’re interested): "It’s never about the world. [...] Everything you do. Everything you believe. Every mistake you ever make and every dream you ever have. It’s not about the ten billion fucking people you’ll never meet—it’s only ever about one."
Every world ends because Jayce will always save Viktor. Every world starts again because Viktor will always save Jayce. A good timeline without Jayce in it is not a good timeline at all. A timeline without the joy and companionship Jayce brought to his life is not a timeline Viktor even contemplates. Without Jayce, the only thing Viktor has left—both the man and the mage versions of him—is dying alone. And that is the most human fear of all.
So how do we break the cycle, if no world is good enough without Jayce in it, but every world that has Jayce in it will always end in a field of dreamless solitude?
Original Viktor finds an answer to that question after endless trials and errors and that answer is actually what a younger version of Jayce would have suggested: "We crank it."
He finds the equation that sends Heimerdinger and Ekko to the AU timeline with no JayVik, so that they can develop the device that will eventually give Jayce an opening to bring Viktor back from the full Machine Herald form, while also bringing Jayce to see their future, to make him understand what will become of them if they don't put an end to it.
So now Jayce understands, truly, for the first time, what it means to be Viktor (he’s literally put through a sped-up version of Viktor's own life struggles), understands his own mistakes, and what the two of them mean to each other. He finally understands the "why" of it all, and he promises to end the loop. A promise that, this time, he won't break.
When Jayce is sent back to the main timeline, he has a mission: crank it. He has to reject Viktor's various attempts to bring Jayce to him, which is where so many other timelines, including the Original, failed, and he has to push Viktor to turn into the worst possible version of himself, which is also the most powerful, because by doing so, they will give this world a chance to survive.
As Jayce says, as he asks for both Piltover and Zaun's help: "This isn't a fair request, but it is our only hope." Zaun and Piltover unite, for the first time in history, in a desperate fight for humanity itself, and while there will be death and suffering, the sun will also rise again, which is more than any other doomed timeline could hope for. But most importantly, the creation of the Machine Herald is essential to make sure the anomaly dies with them, both metaphorically, as there won't be a new timeline after this, and physically, as the Machine Herald incorporates the anomaly into himself to bring about the ultimate hive-mind. Ekko's Z-drive—being a reversed version of that anomaly—can cancel it out once and for all, preventing it from causing any more damage.
"In the pursuit of great, we failed to do good." This is how some good can still come of it.
So Jayce shoots Viktor in the chest, even though it pains him to do so. He abandons him, rejects him, and breaks his heart enough to make him give up his humanity (all but that blanket, the last piece of Jayce's warmth he has left and that he keeps even in his Machine Herald form) so that they can get exactly where they need to be. The only reason he can do any of it is because he promised Viktor that he wouldn't fail. His willingness not to break that promise is what powers him through.
What I really loved, rewatching their interactions and paying attention to Jayce's beautiful facial expressions (the animation was out of this world), was that through all of this, Jayce knew that Viktor wouldn't hurt him, not willingly, not even at the end as he connects him to the hive-mind. Jayce has never been scared of him.
Heimerdinger notes that "the anomaly behaves differently around Jayce," and we see it time and time again as Viktor treats Jayce differently than he treats everyone else. Even at his worst, Viktor tries and tries again to make Jayce see and join him willingly. Jayce now knows that everything Viktor does, misguided as it is, is for them. He desires that connection. This is a constant, just like everything else that binds them together in every timeline.
So, to finally break the cycle, Jayce had to realize—like mage Viktor has—that it was never about the world; it was only ever about one person: "I thought I wanted to give magic to the world. Now, all I want is my partner back."
Jayce had to understand that his inability to let Viktor go would always bring an end to the world, just as Viktor’s inability to let Jayce go would always start it anew.
When Jayce finds out Viktor is dying in S1, this is what Mel (who by now we know has the ability to see through a person and read the truth of them) tells him: "We can't change what fate has in store for us, but we don't have to face it alone." That is the truth he could not accept—that, limited as it is, our time together is all that matters. He wasn't ready to accept it back then; he couldn’t see it—not until Original Viktor himself showed him. This is the lesson Original Viktor learned from losing Jayce over and over again, and what our Viktor has to understand now, before it is too late.
"In all timelines, in all possibilities, only you can show me this".
When Jayce finally hugs him, Viktor sees himself through Jayce's eyes. He sees what will become of Jayce if he doesn't stop, and he understands that for Jayce, he’s always been enough. Jayce loved him—not despite the imperfections he was so ashamed of, all the things he tried so hard to fix at the expense of his humanity—but because it was all part of him, an inseparable piece of everything he admires about him. And most importantly, he realizes what his glorious evolution has always been about: a desire for connection, which is, ultimately, the only answer to any human’s question.
And so he tells Jayce to go—one last attempt at preserving Jayce's life—as he prepares to put an end to it and face his worst fear of dying alone, if it means Jayce can finally let go and live. But Jayce tells him no; they'll finish it together, as he has finally understood that they are the anomaly, the singularity that keeps self-replicating and self-annihilating. It's always been about them wanting to keep existing, together. And so it has to end with them, finally together, for eternity.
And one last thing, just to put it out there:
I find it extremely poetic that the first thing Viktor sees through Jayce's eyes at the end is a clear callback to the couple who died embracing each other in Pompeii. A couple that has only recently been revealed as a gay couple, locked in an eternal embrace. Tell yourself what you like, but JayVik's story speaks for itself, and I have rarely found a love story as beautiful and devastating as theirs.
When I say my soulmate’s a genius, this is what I mean 🤯
I wanna make out with your braaaain
